The Owl and the Pussycat is a 1970 romantic comedy film directed by Herbert Ross and starring Barbra Streisand and George Segal. Streisand plays the role of a somewhat uneducated actress, model and part-time prostitute. She temporarily lives with an educated aspiring writer (Segal). Their differences are obvious, yet over time they begin to admire each other. Comedian/actor Robert Klein appears in a supporting role. Future adult film actress Marilyn Chambers (who was 17 at the time), in her film début (credited as "Evelyn Lang"), plays Klein's girlfriend.[citation needed]

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The screenplay, written by Buck Henry, was based on a stage play by Bill Manhoff.[2] In the stage version, the would-be writer and the would-be actress are the only characters. Though the race of the characters is not specified in the script of the play, in the original Broadway production (1964–65), the "Owl" was played by white actor Alan Alda and the "Pussycat" by black actress/singer Diana Sands, and many subsequent productions followed this precedent; the film version omitted the characters' interracial relationship.[3]

An instant hit, the movie grossed $23,681,338 at the domestic box office, making it the 12th highest grossing film of 1970. The movie also grossed $11,645,000 in rentals. Total gross for the movie was $35,326,338.[1]

The Owl and the Pussycat was released several years ago on DVD. Fans of the movie have complained that one line of dialogue spoken by Streisand (her character saying "fuck")[6] has been deleted from the DVD release.[7]

Barbra Streisand filmed a nude/topless scene for The Owl and the Pussycat that was cut from the film.[8] Streisand told the press: "The director of 'The Owl and the Pussycat' wanted a topless shot, and I agreed on two conditions — one, there would be nobody in the room but George [Segal]; two, I had the right to kill the shot if I didn't think it would work."[9] In November 1979, the U.S. pornographic magazine High Society published the nude frames that were cut from the film. Streisand sued High Society for publishing the celebrity nude shots.[10]

Mad published a spoof of the film in its September 1971 issue (Issue #145), in which much is made of Streisand's profanity. At the end, Segal's writer character first throws his typewriter down an embankment, saying that the words he's used as a writer made him sick, then he throws her over: "Four-letter words make me even sicker! So long, Foul-Mouth!"[11]